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Happy Thanksgiving
to all our families and friends!
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VOR's Weekly News Update
VOR is a national non-profit organization
run by families of people with I/DD and autism
for families of people with I/DD and autism.
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VOR's Annual Fall Fundraising Campaign!
This is the most important time of year for our fundraising.
Most of our membership renewals and donations
will come in the next eight weeks.
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It's Make-It-Or-Break-It Season for VOR.
Like that little squirrel pictured above, gathering nuts for the months ahead, so it is with VOR.
The contributions we receive in the our fall/winter fundraising campaign cover a significant portion of our expenses in the year ahead.
Please contribute,
so that we may continue to help families like yours.
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VOR Podcasts
Episode 5 - Roslyn Leehey
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This week, Casey and Brenna speak with VOR's Roslyn Leehey about her son Teddy, the services he receives in an HCBS group home, and their shared experiences.
Many of you have met Roslyn as the host of our
VOR Networking Meetings.
This is your chance to hear her tell her story!
See this, and other Brenna and Casey's other podcasts
on our YouTube page!
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Express your gratitude to the
Direct Support Professionals
in your life
with a little something extra this year...
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Once again, we have partnered with See's Candies in our 2025 Year-End Fundraising Campaign.
See's has agreed to give us a share of the profits for each box sold.
The idea is not to replace our regular appeal for donations,
but to enhance our fundraising efforts by offering delicious See's Candies to our folks who wish to send gifts to family and friends over the holidays.
You may start ordering now.
Candy will begin shipping on November 10, 2025
The last day to order is December 5, 2025
~~ Free Shipping on all orders over $75 ~~
(Except to PO Boxes as extra packaging is required)
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Press Release from the office of Brian Fitzpatrick, November 21, 2025
Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1), Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus, and Congressman Joe Morelle (NY-25) introduced the Recognizing the Role of Direct Support Professionals Act—bipartisan, bicameral legislation to confront the national workforce shortage facing Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) and ensure individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities can live independently, participate fully in their communities, and receive consistent, high-quality support.
U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced companion legislation in the Senate. The bill is endorsed by the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR).
Direct Support Professionals provide an essential array of day-to-day services—from communication support and independent-living assistance to job coaching and community integration. Yet with home- and community-based providers facing a 39% turnover rate, states lack the accurate workforce data needed to support a stable DSP pipeline. Because DSPs are not currently recognized as a distinct occupation in the federal Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system, policymakers lack the basic information needed to design smarter training, recruitment, and retention strategies.
The Recognizing the Role of Direct Support Professionals Act addresses this challenge by requiring the Office of Management and Budget to consider the creation of a distinct occupational category for DSPs within the federal Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. Establishing this classification—currently absent despite the specialized nature of DSP work—would provide policymakers with the data necessary to understand workforce shortages, strengthen training programs, and drive more effective recruitment and retention efforts.
“We cannot solve a workforce crisis we cannot accurately measure. Families who rely on home- and community-based services know the difference a great Direct Support Professional makes. DSPs are the steady hands and trusted partners who make dignity, independence, and opportunity possible. Yet our system still fails to recognize their specialized work, leaving states without the data needed to build a stable workforce. Our bipartisan bill changes that—giving DSPs the classification they deserve and laying the groundwork for stronger recruitment, better retention, and more reliable support for every individual with a disability,” said Fitzpatrick.
“Direct support professionals help people with disabilities live with dignity and independence, but their work is too often overlooked,” said Morelle. “That’s why I’m proud to support the bipartisan Recognizing the Role of Direct Support Professionals Act to improve hiring, retention, and recognition for these critical workers. And I’ll keep fighting to make sure they get the respect and support they deserve.”
Barbara Merrill, Chief Executive Officer of ANCOR , stated: “This legislation is a crucial next step in addressing the long-standing recruitment and retention crisis that has left too few direct support professionals (DSPs) to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in home- and community-based settings. By officially recognizing DSPs in the occupational classification system, this bill will enable much-needed data collection and help support policies to strengthen the workforce. We thank Representatives Fitzpatrick and Morelle as well as Senators Collins and Hassan for their leadership in supporting the professionalization of this vital workforce, and for their unwavering commitment to improving access to services that ensure people with I/DD can live, work, and thrive in our communities.”
Key Provisions of the Recognizing the Role of Direct Support Professionals Act
The bill:
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Directs the Office of Management and Budget to consider revising the SOC system to establish a discrete occupational code for Direct Support Professionals.
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Ensures states and the federal government receive accurate workforce data—including turnover rates and geographic shortage areas—to better address the DSP workforce crisis.
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Strengthens local training and recruitment efforts by enabling targeted workforce development strategies based on reliable data.
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Formally recognizes DSPs’ unique and specialized responsibilities, distinct from home health aides or personal care aides.
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Requires a report to Congress if a separate SOC code is not created.
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Authorizes no new federal spending, ensuring a fiscally responsible approach.
This legislation is a critical step toward building a stronger workforce, strengthening independent living services, and ensuring every individual with a disability has the support they need to thrive.
Read the press release here
Read the full bill text here.
NOTE: Senators Hasssan and Collins have introduced this bill in the 116th, 117th, 118th, and now the 119th Congress. It was passed by the full Senate in the 118th Congress, but Representative Fitzpatrick was unable to move it through the House.
VOR has always supported this bill, and we ask our members to reach out to their members of the House and Senate to ask them to co-sponsor these bills.
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The following article presents a good argument for supporting the Direct Care Professional Workforce for Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) We include it with the caveat that it only addresses the needs of the aging community and overlooks the caregivers who provide LTSS care for people with I/DD and autism, and it misrepresents HCBS as the only non-mandated Medicaid service, assuming that all "institutional" services are mandated. That is not correct. Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICFs or ICFs/IID) are not mandated either. The only facilities that are mandated by Medicaid are skilled nursing facilities.
For every part of this article that mentions the increases in the aging population, we ask our readers to add the increasing numbers of people with I/DD and autism, and the need to support the DSP workforce and the family caregivers who attend to their needs.
Bridging the gaps: building a labor force to meet long-term care needs Open Access
By Andrea Odinakachukwu Orji, Health Affairs Scholar, Volume 3, Issue 11, November 21, 2025
Abstract
The long-term services and supports (LTSS) system is intended to grant Americans, requiring care that extends beyond what can be provided in a hospital and/or primary care settings alone, access to the appropriate caretakers and facilities. Federal policy has struggled to ensure sustainable access to LTSS and the workforce that provides it. In particular, Medicaid beneficiaries are required to have access to these services but still face difficulties in obtaining them. Long term care provision has traditionally been institutionally based due to funding mandated through Medicaid, but the formalized workforce cannot keep pace with an aging population. Many rely instead on informal caregivers (ie, family, friends, etc.) for their care. While populations requiring long term care prefer to receive care from the comfort of their own communities, informal caregivers are rarely compensated and often forced to juggle employment and caregiving duties. This commentary explores how mandated funding for home and community-based services (HCBS) may improve access to LTSS by mobilizing an existing informal workforce.
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America's elderly population is growing rapidly. Baby Boomers life expectancy is 78, with the whole generation estimated to surpass age 65 by 2030; meanwhile, the 85 and older population is expected to triple by 2050. Decades of research have generated advances in medicine, technology and public health that have lengthened average lifespans compared to when Medicaid and Medicare were originally introduced. However, while attempts to prolong life continue to garner funding with ease, long term care (LTC) and the direct care workforce (DCW) fueling it does not. As LTC needs grow alongside an aging population, it is crucial that investments in this workforce can ensure appropriate capacity to provide care that keeps pace with population needs.
Several healthcare sectors suffered serious workforce losses following COVID-19, but the caregiving industry took a particularly hefty hit. Overall health sector employment surpassed pre-pandemic levels in all except two sub-sectors by 2024: elderly care (1% decrease) and skilled nursing facilities (8.3% decrease). Underemployment in these sectors is worsened by many states’ Certificate of Need laws which effectively restrict the growth of the institutional care sector and its corresponding workforce to mitigate unnecessary spending despite growing long-term care needs.
Family caregivers, working within their dependents’ homes and communities, provided an alternative. They quickly became an unpaid means of addressing gaps exposed by the pandemic, and provided value that was temporarily recognized through the provision of cash payments, tax credits and increased federal match rates for Medicaid in the American Rescue Plan, a financial relief bill meant to revitalize the post COVID economy. However, recognition of the cost effective work provided through Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) was fleeting. As block grants from the COVID era expired, discussions regarding funding renewal were scarce despite the success demonstrated by HCBS. As such, institutional LTSS continues to be the only LTC provision mandated through Medicaid.
The reality of the current DCW is two-fold:
- Availability of informal/family caregivers is waning as the overall U.S. population continues to age rapidly, and
- Our formal caregiver workforce is inadequate to fill growing LTSS needs as the informal sector declines.
It is long overdue for HCBS to be a mandated Medicaid service. Doing so would require a portion of federal Medicaid funding received by states to be allocated to HCBS care compensation. This would eliminate the need for the current waiver system, which limits benefit coverage and waitlist access across state lines depending on concordance of eligibility criteria. While access to long-term care would be expanded, the lingering question of quality assurance remains. Quality measure sets are one aspect of the waiver system that could be retained and modified. They have traditionally been used to assess home-based care, including that provided by informal caregivers. Though admittedly imperfect in assessment scope, these measure sets could provide a good baseline to ensure tracking of quality and efficiency metrics in a changing system.
It's important to recognize that mandating HCBS as a space for bridging gaps in the DCW is just one step toward building a more sustainable long-term care system. While the informal caregiving workforce dwindles, it is critical that we also use this bridging space and time-period to build a labor sector that the formal direct care workforce will want to engage.
Simultaneous reinforcement of these workforces is being harmed by current legislation. Though the Big Beautiful Bill increases the number of 1915 waivers granted to each state for HCBS, it significantly diminishes funding for Medicaid (particularly in states with a history of Medicaid expansion) and delays processes intended to ensure adequate staffing and reimbursement of direct care workers in institutional facilities. Failure to move beyond a one-pronged solution will limit our ability to craft a long-term care system that adequately serves the U.S. population.
America's DCW is projected to increase to 6 million persons by 2032, but this number falls short of estimated needs. However, proper investment in HCBS has the potential to fill current gaps and fuel growth in the field at large. Ideally, by the time the family caregiver population has been outpaced by the number of people requiring care, the formal caregiver workforce will have built the capacity to meet remaining needs.
Many facets of the current LTSS system need serious reform. If properly attended to, the caregiving workforce may prove a strong foundation for a more sustainable system. This is particularly important as current attacks on Medicaid further destabilize the existing system. A robust and growing workforce means an increased likelihood of dependents receiving the necessary care at a lower cost. While innovations that increase access to long-term care should be given high priority, without a workforce to provide affordable care, relevant stakeholders won’t have a system to invest in. Investing in HCBS as a means of smoothing an unavoidable labor force transition creates potential for supporting accessibility on both fronts and is an opportunity that should not be ignored.
Read the full article here
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New York - Disability advocates rally Albany for care worker pay
By Adina Genn, Long Island Business News, November 21, 2025
More than 300 members of the New York Disability Advocates (NYDA) have a message for Albany: Support the needs of direct support professionals (DSPs) as national policies shift and costs continue to rise.
These are pressures faced across the state, including in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
“On Long Island, we’ve seen how inflation and rising costs affect every part of the care system,” Walter Stockton, president and CEO of Manorville-based Kinexion, said in a news release about a recent NYDA rally in Albany held earlier this week.
Stockton was joined at the rally by leaders of nonprofit agencies across the state, several members of the state legislature, direct support professionals, family members and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Now, advocates are calling for a “CareForce Affordability Agenda” to meet the needs of those whose work involves caring for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
To address these needs, NYDA is advocating for a 2.7 percent targeted inflationary increase to keep Medicaid reimbursement in line with costs and allow nonprofit agencies to fairly compensate DSPs while maintaining essential services such as utilities, transportation, food, insurance and housing.
The organization also supports affordability initiatives, including a CareForce Affordable Housing Lottery Preference, an Employer-Assisted Housing Matching Grant Program, and SONYMA CareForce incentives to expand homeownership. Additional measures include funding for childcare, an expanded New York State Child Tax Credit for human services workers, and increased healthcare coverage to address workforce affordability challenges.
NYDA also calls for investments in infrastructure and the care system to modernize facilities serving people with intellectual and development disabilities. This includes supporting innovative service models, implementing climate-friendly upgrades and ensuring providers can properly maintain homes for the individuals they serve.
Advocates say that over the past five years, New York provided a cumulative 15.8 percent inflationary increase to providers, resulting in measurable gains for agencies. Since 2021, frontline staff vacancies fell 43.5 percent, staff turnover dropped 6.1 percent, and statewide starting wages rose 28.6 percent. Continued investment is needed, advocates say, to maintain this progress and prevent a return to earlier workforce shortages and funding shortfalls.
And while many DSPs find their work rewarding, they struggle with meeting expenses. Half face food insecurity, and half experience housing insecurity, according to NYDA.
Investing in affordability for DSPs would strengthen local economies and communities across the state, advocates say. It would help reduce turnover, ensure consistent care for people with disabilities, boost local spending, support small businesses and increase housing stability and property tax revenues, promoting workforce stability statewide.
Advocates say the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has created uncertainty about the state’s healthcare commitments. New York provider agencies rely almost entirely on Medicaid, and while the federal cuts exclude the intellectual and developmental disabilities care system, experts stress the need for continued state investment as inflation drives up costs.
Federal cuts are eliminating $7.5 billion for the New York Essential Plan, a state‐sponsored health insurance program, which provides health coverage to New Yorkers in households earning up to $39,125 for a single adult or $80,375 for a family of four who are not eligible for Medicaid, according to NYDA. Ending the plan would put hundreds of thousands, including DSPs and other frontline care workers, at risk of losing affordable healthcare.
Rising inflation has increased operational costs for provider agencies, with essential expenses such as transportation, food and housing rising, while New York State’s inflationary increase for non-profit care agencies has not kept pace with real costs, according to NYDA. Lower-wage workers, including direct support professionals and frontline care staff, are disproportionately affected, facing severe housing insecurity as rent often consumes more than half of their income, advocates say.
Read the full article here
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Disability Rights Center launches investigation into New Hampshire’s disability care system
By William Skipworth, New Hampshire Bulletin, November 25, 2025
The Disability Rights Center-NH has launched an investigation into New Hampshire’s disability care system following a series of articles published by the Bulletin earlier this month, the agency said Monday.
The Bulletin’s reporting uncovered systemic abuse and neglect, sometimes fatal, within the state’s intellectual and developmental disability care system. From January 2023 through June 2025, there were 467 credible reports of abuse, neglect, and exploitation against people in this system investigated by the state, according to records obtained by the Bulletin. The records also show 119 people died in the system during this time period. As part of its investigation into the tragedies, the Bulletin spoke with lawyers, advocates, and family members of victims.
In New Hampshire, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are entitled to care that is funded and overseen by the state. The Department of Health and Human Services contracts with 10 private area agencies, each responsible for a region of the state, to coordinate the care. The agencies either provide that care themselves or subcontract with another vendor agency.
The Disability Rights Center-NH, or DRC, is a federally designated protection and advocacy agency. That means it has statutory legal authority to conduct investigations into suspected abuse and neglect against people with disabilities, access records that aren’t normally releasable under open records laws, and pursue litigation on behalf of people with disabilities. In order to launch an investigation into malpractice, the agency needs to establish “probable cause.” (Though the standard for probable cause is lower for an agency like theirs than it is for law enforcement.)
Francesca Broderick, the organization’s senior staff attorney and investigations coordinator, said the Bulletin’s series earlier this month gave the agency probable cause.
“Under federal statute, media reports are actually enumerated as a source that could form the basis of a probable cause finding,” Broderick said. “Media reports are obviously a way that a lot of things come to light.”
Broderick said the DRC is looking at the system broadly. She said her team is pulling documents the Bulletin made public — specifically the state’s mortality report — and using them as launching points for its investigation.
Continued
The above article illustrates the problem with our "Disability Rights" system, and the Protection and Advocacy System in most states.:
They simply do not protect people with I/DD and autism.
They claim that "“Under federal statute, media reports are actually enumerated as a source that could form the basis of a probable cause finding,” - But what about reports from individuals and families? Are they not allowed under law to take these claims seriously? If numerous complaints from people receiving care from a provider are brought to them, is that not basis for probable cause?
Either we need to change the "basis for probable cause" or we need to change the system entirely. That, or else we should just get rid of P&As altogether and have HHS and the ACL start paying investigative reporters for the work they do to keep our loved ones safe.
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Parents Should Continue to File Disability Rights Complaints, Say Special Ed. Advocates
By Evie Blad, Education Week, November 21, 2025
Parents of students with disabilities have long seen federal civil rights complaints as their last, best hope of ensuring schools meet their legal obligations to address their children’s needs. Changes and staff reductions at the U.S. Department of Education have eroded trust in that process, advocates said.
Their message to those parents: File the complaints anyway.
“Families feel like, ‘If it’s going to take a long time to get a resolution, what is the point?’” said Robyn Linscott, the director of education and family policy for The Arc of the United States, an organization that advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
But if families stop reporting concerns and numbers of complaints drop, “it feeds into a narrative that we don’t need as many people [working in the Education Department’s office for civil rights] because everything is fine,” Linscott said.
It’s a message civil rights organizations and parent advocacy groups have repeatedly stressed as they push for greater congressional oversight of dramatic staff reductions at the Education Department, which President Donald Trump has pledged to abolish. Those changes have hit the office for civil rights especially hard.
The advocates’ efforts coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the nation’s primary special education law. The IDEA requires schools to provide a free and adequate public education by making individualized education programs, or IEPs, to support the needs of students with disabilities and ensure they are educated in the least restrictive environment possible.
Enforcement springs from mandates in IDEA that schools sometimes fall short of, by disproportionately disciplining students with disabilities, for example; unfairly segregating them from their general education peers; and failing to evaluate their needs in a timely manner, advocates say.
Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, schools are also required to make “reasonable accommodations” for students with disabilities.
When efforts to resolve such concerns on the state and local levels fail, families can file federal complaints to the office for civil rights. About 33% of the 25,000 complaints OCR received in 2024 were related to disability rights, the agency said in a report to Congress.
But changes to that office—and concerns about more to come—have left parents vulnerable to misinformation and fear, Linscott said.
Read the full article here
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RFK Jr. says he personally directed CDC’s new guidance on vaccines and autism
By Ali Swenson, The Associated Press via WNDU, November 23, 2025
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. personally directed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update its website to contradict its longtime guidance that vaccines don’t cause autism, he told The New York Times in an interview published Friday.
His comments provide clarity into who directed the CDC’s website change, after many current and former staffers at the agency were surprised to see new published guidance on Wednesday that defies scientific consensus. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic, has upended the public health agencies he oversees and pushed for and enacted changes that have unsettled much of the medical community, which sees his policies as harmful for Americans.
“The whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made,’ is just a lie,” Kennedy said in the interview, which was conducted Thursday.
The CDC’s “vaccine safety” page now claims that the statement “vaccines do not cause autism” is not based on evidence because it doesn’t rule out the possibility that infant vaccines are linked to the disorder. The page also has been updated to suggest that health officials have ignored studies showing a potential link.
Public health researchers and advocates strongly refute the updated website, saying it misleads the public by exploiting the fact that the scientific method can’t satisfy a demand to prove a negative. They note that scientists have thoroughly explored potential links between vaccines and autism in rigorous research spanning decades, all pointing to the same conclusion that vaccines don’t cause autism.
“No environmental factor has been better studied as a potential cause of autism than vaccines,” the Autism Science Foundation said in a statement Thursday. “This includes vaccine ingredients as well as the body’s response to vaccines. All this research has determined that there is no link between autism and vaccines.”
Kennedy, a longtime leader in the anti-vaccine movement, acknowledged to The New York Times the existence of studies showing no link to autism from the mercury-based preservative thimerosal or from the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. But he told the newspaper there are still gaps in vaccine safety science and a need for more research.
The move creates another disagreement between the health secretary and Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate health committee. During his confirmation process, Kennedy pledged to Cassidy he would leave the statement that vaccines do not cause autism on the CDC website. The statement remains on the website but with a disclaimer that it was left there because of their agreement.
Kennedy told The New York Times he talked to Cassidy about the updated website and that Cassidy disagreed with the decision.
“What parents need to hear right now is vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe and effective and will not cause autism,” Cassidy posted on X on Thursday. “Any statement to the contrary is wrong, irresponsible, and actively makes Americans sicker.”
The updated website comes as Kennedy has taken other steps as health secretary that sow doubt in immunizations. He has pulled $500 million for their development, ousted and replaced every member of a federal vaccine advisory committee and pledged to overhaul a federal program for compensating Americans injured by shots. He also fired former CDC Director Susan Monarez less than a month into her tenure after they clashed over vaccine policy.
Continued
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Kennedy Says He Told C.D.C. to Change Website’s Language on Autism and Vaccines
In an interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited gaps in vaccine safety research. His critics say he is ignoring a larger point: Vaccines save lives.
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times, November 21, 2025
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview that he personally instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to abandon its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism — a move that underscores his determination to challenge scientific consensus and bend the health department to his will.
In an interview on Thursday explaining why the C.D.C. website now says the claim that vaccines do not cause autism is not “evidence-based,” Mr. Kennedy acknowledged that large-scale epidemiological studies of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine had found no link to autism, and that studies of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal had also shown no link.
But he cited gaps in vaccine safety science. He said he ordered the C.D.C. to change its guidance in part because high-quality large studies had not been conducted to examine a potential link between autism and other shots given in the first year of life. Those include the hepatitis B vaccine and a combination shot that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough.
In his view, sweeping statements like “vaccines don’t cause autism” are unproven, and have been deployed by public health leaders who want to ease parents’ fears. He said he is not saying vaccines cause autism; he is simply saying there is no proof that they don’t.
“The whole thing about ‘vaccines have been tested and there’s been this determination made,’ is just a lie,” Mr. Kennedy said in the interview, his first with a major print publication. He added, “The phrase ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not supported by science.”
It is highly unusual for a health secretary to personally order a change to scientific guidance. Former C.D.C. officials say that such changes are usually initiated by agency scientists, and in some cases might go to the secretary’s office for review. Mr. Kennedy’s intervention flows out of his two decades of vaccine activism, and demonstrates his intense interest in the topic even as other health issues, including the cancellation of insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, are swirling in Washington.
Experts say Mr. Kennedy is correct, in a narrow sense, in saying that certain studies have not yet been done. But they say he is also asking for a level of proof that is difficult to achieve. As Dr. Arthur Caplan, who directs the medical ethics division at New York University, once wryly noted, “You can’t prove that Coca-Cola doesn’t cause autism either.”
Most mainstream public health leaders, including an official at the American Medical Association, a former C.D.C. director and the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, say the question of whether vaccines cause autism has been settled. Mr. Kennedy’s critics say he is cherry-picking facts and seeking studies to confirm his own predetermined conclusion.
By focusing on a theoretical, unproven risk, critics say, Mr. Kennedy is using his platform as health secretary to discourage vaccination, an issue that earned him millions of dollars and boosted his political career. They accuse him of playing on parents’ fears about autism, while ignoring incontrovertible evidence that vaccines have saved millions of lives.
“There is overwhelming evidence that vaccines do not cause autism but do save lives,” said Dr. Mandy Cohen, who led the C.D.C. during the Biden administration. She said the website change damages the C.D.C.’s credibility and “risks endangering children by driving down vaccination rates and leaving kids vulnerable to preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough.”
The website changes have once again put the secretary at odds with Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and the health committee chairman, who is also a doctor. To win the senator’s vote for confirmation, Mr. Kennedy promised not to remove a statement from the C.D.C. website stating that vaccines do not cause autism.
The statement remains at the top of the site, with an asterisk leading to a footnote that says the header “has not been removed due to an agreement” with the health committee chairman.
The page goes on to say that the claim is not “evidence-based” and that “studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.” It does not mention the life-saving benefits of vaccines.
Mr. Cassidy, writing Thursday on the social media platform X, appeared incensed.
“I’m a doctor who has seen people die from vaccine-preventable diseases,” he wrote. “What parents need to hear right now is vaccines for measles, polio, hepatitis B and other childhood diseases are safe and effective and will not cause autism. Any statement to the contrary is wrong, irresponsible, and actively makes Americans sicker.”
Read the full article here
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Please share this offer with your loved one's
Direct Support Professionals!
VOR ❤️s OUR
DIRECT SUPPORT PROFESSIONALS!
Our loved ones' caregivers are essential to their health, safety, and happiness.
In appreciation of their good work and kind hearts, VOR offers free digital memberships to any DSP who would like to receive our newsletter.
We encourage our members to speak with their loved ones' caregivers to extend this offer of our gratitude.
If you are a Direct Support Professional interested in receiving our newsletter and e-content, please write us at
info@vor.net
with your name, email address, and the name of the facility at which you work. Please include the name of the VOR member who told you of this offer.
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[Please click on blue link to view information about the bill]
VOR SUPPORTS:
H.R.6137 / S.3211 - Rep.Brian Fitzpatrick (R-NJ) and Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) - A bill to require the Office of Management and Budget to consider revising the Standard Occupational Classification system to establish a separate code for direct support professionals
H.R.4796 - Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) - Restoring Essential Healthcare Act -To amend Public Law 119-21 (The One Big Beautiful Bill Act) to repeal the prohibition on making payments under the Medicaid program to certain entities.
H.R.4807 - Rep Greg Landsman (D-OH) - Protect Our Hospitals Act - To amend Public Law 119-21 to repeal certain changes to provider taxes under the Medicaid program.
H.R.1262 & S.932 - Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) "Give Kids A Chance Act" - To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to molecularly targeted pediatric cancer investigations. This bill would renew research into pediatric cancers and includes increasing funding for rare diseases, some of which cause Intellual and developmental disabilities and autism.
H.R.1509 & S.752 - Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) & Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Accelerating Kids' Access to Care Act -
This bill would amend titles XIX and XXI of the Social Security Act to streamline the enrollment process for eligible out-of-state providers under Medicaid and CHIP, and streamline enrollment under the Medicaid program of certain providers across State lines.
H.R.2598 & S.1277 - Rep Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Sen Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) The IDEA Full Funding Act
To amend part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to provide full Federal funding of such part.
S.2279 - Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)
A bill to repeal the changes to Medicaid State provider tax authority and State directed payments made by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and provide increased funding for the rural health transformation program.
H.R.1950 - Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) - Protect Social Security and Medicare Act
To protect benefits provided under Social Security, Medicare, and any other program of benefits administered by the Social Security Administration or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
S.779 & H.R.1735 - Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) & Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX)
To amend title XIX of the Public Health Service Act to provide for prevention and early intervention services under the Block Grants for Community Mental Health Services program
H.R.2491 & S.1227 - Rep Kat Cammack (R-FL) & Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) - The ABC Act
To require the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Commissioner of Social Security to review and simplify the processes, procedures, forms, and communications for family caregivers to assist individuals in establishing eligibility for, enrolling in, and maintaining and utilizing coverage and benefits under the Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and Social Security programs
VOR OPPOSES:
H.R.2743 & S.1332 - Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) & Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Raise the Wage Act - A bill to provide increases to the Federal minimum wage and for other purposes. VOR opposes the provision in this bill that would phase out section 14(c) and sheltered workshops for indiviiduals with I/DD and autism.
S.2438 - Transformation to Competitive Employment Act (Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) - A bill to assist employers providing employment under special certificates issued under section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 in transforming their business and program models to models that support people with disabilities through competitive integrated employment, to phase out the use of such special certificates, and for other purposes.
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